(Rating: 12A, 111 mins) Written by Zen Terrelonge of zentertainmentweekly.com
Starring - Kristen Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierro, Aidan Quinn.
A powerful and gripping drama set in both the time of the second world war 1942 and the years proceeding it, as well as the present day.
Throughout the duration, the film flits between the two ages seamlessly just as it does with the French and English language.
The majority of the film takes place in France, it's the setting for the disgraceful suffering the Jews suffered at the hands of their fellow countrymen during the time of Hitler's command.
Julia (Scott Thomas) is the investigative journalist in the present day that retraces the steps of a hidden tragedy that happened when thousands of Jews were rounded up and contained in a temporary prison the Velodrome which held inhumane conditions.
There was no food, no water and no toilets, not only were men taken but also women and children had to suffer the torture which saw many die or go mad from the trauma.
This particular event was swept under the carpet and ignored by locals and most in the present are unaware it even took place.
Back to 1942 and young Sarah (Melusine Mayance) and her little brother are playing together in a Parisian apartment whilst their mother does motherly type things, presumably hiding biscuits on the top shelf, cleaning up sticking fingerprints and so on.
A thundering rap of knuckles bangs at the door and in enters a soldier demanding to know who's at home, Sarah conceals her brother promising to return to him and so she and her parents are carted off the the prison before they get divided at the concentration camps.
Sarah finds an accomplice and together the two embark on a mission of rescue to retrieve her brother from the apartment she promised to return to.
Without warning the scenes change from present to past, past to present and gradually not only do we see Sarah progressing on her quest and the dangers that lie in her wake, we also see American Julia getting closer and digging deeper to the history and secrets around the brave little girl.
Scott Thomas' Julia is bold, determined and fixated with her path to finding out the truth behind the past which runs as a mirror image to the same manner in which Sarah is tackling her own target.
With Julia's research, a discovery is made which completely changes her life for the revelation involves her more than she could have ever thought possible.
Love and passion is the fuel for the films engine and as the film progresses the mind will wander into along its own calculative route as it tries to derive what the outcome of the tangled web will be.
7/10
Sarah's Key is released in cinemas in the UK from 5th August.
For more visit - http://wp.me/p1AJJT-mV
Starring - Kristen Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup, Frederic Pierro, Aidan Quinn.
A powerful and gripping drama set in both the time of the second world war 1942 and the years proceeding it, as well as the present day.
Throughout the duration, the film flits between the two ages seamlessly just as it does with the French and English language.
The majority of the film takes place in France, it's the setting for the disgraceful suffering the Jews suffered at the hands of their fellow countrymen during the time of Hitler's command.
Julia (Scott Thomas) is the investigative journalist in the present day that retraces the steps of a hidden tragedy that happened when thousands of Jews were rounded up and contained in a temporary prison the Velodrome which held inhumane conditions.
There was no food, no water and no toilets, not only were men taken but also women and children had to suffer the torture which saw many die or go mad from the trauma.
This particular event was swept under the carpet and ignored by locals and most in the present are unaware it even took place.
Back to 1942 and young Sarah (Melusine Mayance) and her little brother are playing together in a Parisian apartment whilst their mother does motherly type things, presumably hiding biscuits on the top shelf, cleaning up sticking fingerprints and so on.
A thundering rap of knuckles bangs at the door and in enters a soldier demanding to know who's at home, Sarah conceals her brother promising to return to him and so she and her parents are carted off the the prison before they get divided at the concentration camps.
Sarah finds an accomplice and together the two embark on a mission of rescue to retrieve her brother from the apartment she promised to return to.
Without warning the scenes change from present to past, past to present and gradually not only do we see Sarah progressing on her quest and the dangers that lie in her wake, we also see American Julia getting closer and digging deeper to the history and secrets around the brave little girl.
Scott Thomas' Julia is bold, determined and fixated with her path to finding out the truth behind the past which runs as a mirror image to the same manner in which Sarah is tackling her own target.
With Julia's research, a discovery is made which completely changes her life for the revelation involves her more than she could have ever thought possible.
Love and passion is the fuel for the films engine and as the film progresses the mind will wander into along its own calculative route as it tries to derive what the outcome of the tangled web will be.
7/10
Sarah's Key is released in cinemas in the UK from 5th August.
For more visit - http://wp.me/p1AJJT-mV